Nitrous Oxide Emission from an Upland Cropping System in the Humid Tropics

Nitrous oxide (N20) emission to the atmosphere has a great implication on global climate change. Agricultural soils seem to be its major source, though little attention is given to the soils and upland cropping systems of the humid tropics. Thus, laboratory experiments were carried out to study the impact of N sources, moisture regimes and soil types on N20 production A field experiment was conducted to measure N20 emissions from a maize-groundnut cropping system managed with different N sources. The laboratory incubation study using an Ultisol showed a maximum N20 flux of 2379 ug N20-N kg-1 soil d-1 with chicken manure application at 60010 water-filled pore space (WFPS). Application of potassium nitrate, groundnut residue and urea resulted in smaller production rates (61 5 - 699 ug N20-N kg-l soil d-1). Addition of ammonium sulfate and maize residue produced the lowest rates, 229 and 246 ug N20-N kg-1 soil d-1, respectively. In general, the total N20 production in 25 days increased with decrease in C/N ratio of the organic N sources

Identification of Cladosporium sp. Fungi by in- silico RFLP-PCR

يلعب الفطر Cladosporium  دورا مهما في صحة الانسان فهو احد الفطريات المسببة لامراض الحساسية والربو ومن اكثر الابواغ المحموله في الهواء ، ولاهمية هذه الفطر شملت هذه الدراسة تصميم بادئ عام لتشخيص 25 نوعا تعود للفطر  Cladosporium  طبقا للمناطق المحفوظة في تسلسل القواعد النتروجينية في مواقع وحدات الرايبوسوم 5.8S و 18S و 28S في هذه الانواع. استخدمت طريقة تغاير قطع التقييد لتفاعل البلمرة المتسلسل RFLP) ) لتشخيص 24 نوعا من انواع الفطر التي تم تشخيصها باستخدام البادئ العام  . اجريت جميع التجارب باستخدام برامج البايولوجي الجزيئي على جهاز الحاسوب والتي اظهرت نتائجها فعالية البادئ المصمم في تشخيص 24 نوعا من اصل 25 نوع وايضا امكانية تشخيص والتمييز لثلاثة انواع من الفطريات باستخدام الانزيمات القاطعة المتخصصة على مستوى النوع وهي Cl. halotorenas باستخدام ثلاثة انزيمات متخصصة و Cl. colrandse  باستخدام انزيمين  و Cl. aciculare بانزيم واحد. توفر هذه التقنية طريقة فعالة في فحص مدى كفاءة البادئات المصصمة والمختارة لاجراء تجارب الـ PCR  افتراضيا قبل استخدامها في المختبر وكذلك استخدام طريقة RFLP عن طريق ايجاد الانزيمات القاطعة الخاصة على مستوى النوع لللاجناس المهمة صحيا لاستخدامها في المختبر لاختصار الوقت والجهد ونجاح عمليات تضخيم وتفاعل انزيم البلمرة PCR . Cladosporium sp. plays an important role in human health, it is one of the pathogenic fungi which cause allergy and asthma and most frequently isolated from airborne spores.  In this study, a couple of universal PCR primers were designed to identify the pathogenic fungi Cladosporium sp. according to conserved region 5.8S, 18S and 28S subunit ribosomal RNA gene in Cladosporium species. In silico RFLP-PCR were used to identify twenty-four Cladosporium strains. The results showed that the universal primer has the specificity to amplify the conserved region in 24 species as a band in virtual agarose gel. They also showed that the RFLP method is able to identify three Cladosporium species by specific and unique restriction enzymes for each one. These species are Cl. halotorenas by the two unique enzymes BsaXI and MobII, the other species is Cl. colrandse by two enzymes BccI and BtsCI, while the third species is Cl. aciculare by one enzyme BceAI. Each enzyme forms two bands in virtual agarose gel as a results of cutting the DNA by the enzyme, where the rest twenty – two species share more than one restriction enzymes. This method is active and rapid for identifying Cladosporium genus and three species by computational bases methods before applying it in the lab for more accuracy, efficiency, and specificity of designed primer to get good results in a short time

Multi-Stage Protection Using Pixel Selection Technique for Enhancing Steganography

Steganography and data security are extremely important for all organizations. This research introduces a novel stenographic method called multi-stage protection using the pixel selection technique (MPPST). MPPST is developed based on the features of the pixel and analysis technique to extract the pixel's characteristics and distribution of cover-image. A pixel selection technique is proposed for hiding secret messages using the feature selection method. The secret file is distributed and embedded randomly into the stego-image to make the process of the steganalysis complicated.  The attackers not only need to deter which pixel values have been selected to carry the secret file, they also must rearrange the correct sequence of pixels. MPPST generates a complex key that indicates where the encrypted elements of the binary sequence of a secret file are. The analysis stage undergoes four stages, which are the calculation of the peak signal-to-noise ratio, mean squared error, histogram analysis, and relative entropy. These four stages are used to demonstrate the characteristics of the cover image. To evaluate the proposed method, MPPST is compared to the standard technique of Least Significant Bit (LSB) and other algorithms from the literature. The experimental results show that MPPST outperforms other algorithms for all instances and achieves a significant security enhancement

A Novel Privacy Preserving Search Technique for Stego Data in Untrusted Cloud

We propose the first privacy preserving search technique for stego health data in untrusted cloud in this paper. The Cloud computing is a popular technology to the healthcare providers for outsourcing health data due to flexibility and cost effectiveness. However, outsourcing health data to the cloud introduces serious privacy issues to the patient. For example, dishonest personnel of the cloud provider may disclose patient sensitive information to business organizations for some financial benefits. Using steganography, patient sensitive information is hidden within health data for privacy preservation. As a result, stego health data is generated. To the best of our knowledge, no method exists for searching a particular stego data without disclosing any information to the cloud. We propose a framework for privacy preserving search over stego health data. We systematically describe each component of the proposed framework. We conduct several experiments to evaluate the performance of the framework

Molecular Detecting of fungi and Bacteria in the ‎Blood of Patients With Genital System ‎Inflammatory Infection

أستخدمت تقنية الـ PCR للتحري عن الفطريات والبكتريا في دم المصابين المصاحب لالتهابات الجهاز التناسلي ، ثلاث انواع من البادئات استخدمت لتشخيص بكتريا E.coli  والفطر Candida spp. وتواجد مجاميع اخرى من الفطريات واظهرت النتائج الاصابة بكلا النوعين حيث ان جميع المرضى كانو مصابين ببكتريا  E.coli و30 %منهم مصابين بالفطر Candida spp. و بنفس النسبة لفطريات اخرى .A PCR technique was used to detect fungi and bacteria in the blood of patients with inflammatory infection of genital system, three primer sets were used to detect E. Coli , Candida spp. and existence of other fungi  The results showed infection by both microorganisms. All patients had bacteria in the blood stream while 30 % of them had a Candida spp. and the same percentage of other fungi species in bloo

Blockchain-based Access Control for Secure Smart Industry Management Systems

Smart manufacturing systems involve a large number of interconnected devices resulting in massive data generation. Cloud computing technology has recently gained increasing attention in smart manufacturing systems for facilitating cost-effective service provisioning and massive data management. In a cloud-based manufacturing system, ensuring authorized access to the data is crucial. A cloud platform is operated under a single authority. Hence, a cloud platform is prone to a single point of failure and vulnerable to adversaries. An internal or external adversary can easily modify users' access to allow unauthorized users to access the data. This paper proposes a role-based access control to prevent modification attacks by leveraging blockchain and smart contracts in a cloud-based smart manufacturing system. The role-based access control is developed to determine users' roles and rights in smart contracts. The smart contracts are then deployed to the private blockchain network. We evaluate our solution by utilizing Ethereum private blockchain network to deploy the smart contract. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and evaluation of the proposed framework's performance

Assessing of Farmers' Opinion towards Floating Agriculture as a Means of Cleaner Production: A Case of Barisal District, Bangladesh

Aims: Bangladesh, as a low-lying country, is vulnerable to global climate change and affected by floods and water logging. Hence, the country needs to adopt sufficient adaptation strategies which are based on local people traditional knowledge and locally available materials; hence, floating agriculture is that type of agriculture. Through this article we examine the floating agriculture related farmers opinion towards floating agriculture as a means of cleaner production Study Design: A descriptive survey research design is followed for the study and interview schedule is the main data collection instrument of the research. Place and Duration of Study: The study area was Banaripara and Wazirpur Upazila of Barisal District of Bangladesh. Data was collected from the farmers who were involved with floating agriculture. Methodology: A total number of 385 farmers of the two Upazilas were the population and out of them 140 farmers were selected as the sample of the study. The interview schedule was developed according to the objective of the research. We used five points Likert scale to judge the opinion towards floating agriculture. We administered multiple regression analysis using SPSS for finding out the influence of farmers’ socio-demographic characteristics on their opinion towards floating agriculture as a means of cleaner production. Results: The farmers of the study area had moderately to less a favorable opinion (83%) towards floating agriculture as a means of cleaner production. Three of the characteristics of the farmers (eg. their age, family size and training participation on floating agriculture) had an influence on their opinion according to the regression results. Therefore, the higher the listed three characteristics according to the regression result the higher will be the opinion of the farmers towards floating agriculture. Conclusion: These findings suggest that it is important to explore knowledge and arrange training for the farmers on floating bed preparation, selecting suitable crops, the intercultural operation of crops and so on. Moreover, future research should be carried out on floating agriculture’s role as a means of women and unemployed employment opportunity, community development, and identify challenges of this technique

Synergistic Efficiency Between Types of Fungi and Algae for Wastewater Treatment

The study aims to demonstrate the efficiency of the synergy between types of fungi and algae for wastewater treatment. Samples are collected from the waters of Wadi al-Kharazi inside the University of Mosul. Four genera of organisms, two sexes of fungi, and two sexes of algae are used for the purpose of reacting. Examinations are conducted for water treated with fungi and algae, as 8 treatments are used compared to the control treatment that contains water alone. The pH function, bicarbonate ions, and sulfates with the two elements iron and copper are measured. The results of the bicarbonate examination show that the best biological treatment is in the mixed culturing of the alga Spirogyra maxima and the fungus Trichoderma asperallum. The average concentration during the incubation periods is 162.8 mg.l-1 compared to the average control treatment ranging 204.9 mg.l-1. The results of the sulfate examination show a decrease in concentration for all treatments compared to the control treatment. The best biological treatment in the mixed culturing is between the alga Spirogyra maxima and the fungus Mucor racemosus, as the removal rate reached 48% compared to the average of the control treatment. Examinations have demonstrated the synergy between fungi and algae in increasing the efficiency of pollutant removal rather than using both separately

Coastal groundwater aquifer characterization from geoelectrical measurements- A case study at Kalapara, Patuakhali, Bangladesh.

Vertical electrical sounding has been carried out in a coastal area in the southern part of Bangladesh to locate the groundwater aquifers containing fresh water. The Interpex1X1Dv3 computer program was used to process the field apparent resistivity data sets obtained from the vertical electrical sounding.  Geoelectric layers were identified in the context of resistivity and thickness from the vertical electrical sounding data. From the initial parameters layered model was achieved using the inversion technique. Correlation of the obtained layer model with a nearby lithologic log concludes the groundwater aquifer system of the area. From the electrical properties of the subsurface layers, water bearing layers were detected and characterized. Very fine sand geoelectric layer with a thickness varying from 20 to 143 meters is an upper aquifer and has 0.66–14.02 Ωm apparent resistivity value. Fine sand geoelectric layer with 0.21-5.99 Ωm apparent resistivity value is lower aquifer with maximum thickness ~250 meters. From the resistivity value, it is observed that the upper aquifer contains saline to brackish-fresh water while the resistivity value of the lower aquifer indicates that it contains saline water. The water quality of the upper zone varies geographically from the southern to the northern part in the investigated area. The water quality of the upper aquifer is fresh in the northern part of the study while lower aquifer contains saline water there

Health in times of uncertainty in the eastern Mediterranean region, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013

Background The eastern Mediterranean region is comprised of 22 countries: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Since our Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010), the region has faced unrest as a result of revolutions, wars, and the so-called Arab uprisings. The objective of this study was to present the burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors in the eastern Mediterranean region as of 2013. Methods GBD 2013 includes an annual assessment covering 188 countries from 1990 to 2013. The study covers 306 diseases and injuries, 1233 sequelae, and 79 risk factors. Our GBD 2013 analyses included the addition of new data through updated systematic reviews and through the contribution of unpublished data sources from collaborators, an updated version of modelling software, and several improvements in our methods. In this systematic analysis, we use data from GBD 2013 to analyse the burden of disease and injuries in the eastern Mediterranean region specifi cally. Findings The leading cause of death in the region in 2013 was ischaemic heart disease (90·3 deaths per 100 000 people), which increased by 17·2% since 1990. However, diarrhoeal diseases were the leading cause of death in Somalia (186·7 deaths per 100 000 people) in 2013, which decreased by 26·9% since 1990. The leading cause of disabilityadjusted life-years (DALYs) was ischaemic heart disease for males and lower respiratory infection for females. High blood pressure was the leading risk factor for DALYs in 2013, with an increase of 83·3% since 1990. Risk factors for DALYs varied by country. In low-income countries, childhood wasting was the leading cause of DALYs in Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen, whereas unsafe sex was the leading cause in Djibouti. Non-communicable risk factors were the leading cause of DALYs in high-income and middle-income countries in the region. DALY risk factors varied by age, with child and maternal malnutrition aff ecting the younger age groups (aged 28 days to 4 years), whereas high bodyweight and systolic blood pressure aff ected older people (aged 60–80 years). The proportion of DALYs attributed to high body-mass index increased from 3·7% to 7·5% between 1990 and 2013. Burden of mental health problems and drug use increased. Most increases in DALYs, especially from non-communicable diseases, were due to population growth. The crises in Egypt, Yemen, Libya, and Syria have resulted in a reduction in life expectancy; life expectancy in Syria would have been 5 years higher than that recorded for females and 6 years higher for males had the crisis not occurred. Interpretation Our study shows that the eastern Mediterranean region is going through a crucial health phase. The Arab uprisings and the wars that followed, coupled with ageing and population growth, will have a major impact on the region’s health and resources. The region has historically seen improvements in life expectancy and other health indicators, even under stress. However, the current situation will cause deteriorating health conditions for many countries and for many years and will have an impact on the region and the rest of the world. Based on our fi ndings, we call for increased investment in health in the region in addition to reducing the confl icts