Metal concentrations in Sungai Sedili Kecil, Johor, Peninsular Malaysia

Water and sediment from five sampling stations in Sungai Sedili Kecil were sampled in October 2010 and analyzed for 11 metals including cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), lead (Pb), aluminium (Al), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), arsenic (As) and argentum (Ar). Results showed that the mean dissolved metal concentrations (in μg/L) in Sungai Sedili waters based on 5 sampling stations (in descending order) for Fe, Al, Zn, Cu, As, Mn, Ni, Pb, Co, Cd and Ag were 443.7, 52.7, 50.2, 34.2, 25.9, 20.3, 6.8, 1.4, 0.77, 0.67 and 0.10 μg/L, respectively. Mean metal concentrations (in μg/g dry weight) for sediments (in descending order) for Fe, Al, Mn, Zn, Pb, Cu, As, Ni, Co, Cd and Ag were 33389.4, 17118.7, 190.5, 55.1, 29.1, 26.3, 19.3, 10.9, 4.7, 0.18 and 0.12 μg/g, respectively. A comparison with various water and sediment quality standards showed that the mean metal concentrations in surface water and sediment of Sungai Sedili Kecil were low and within the range of natural background except for Cu and Fe in water

Myelodysplasia in a psoriasis patient receiving etanercept : Cause or coincidence?

Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

A Ka-Band Horn Antenna Excited With Parasitic Dielectric Resonator Antenna

A pyramidal horn antenna excited with parasitic dielectric resonator (DR) antenna for use at Ka-band frequencies is proposed

The Determinants of Trade and Trade Direction of Arab Maghreb Union (AMU)

The Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) comprising Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia have established a framework to enhance regional cooperation on trade facilitation. Today, the AMU countries have increased their trade integration into the world economy. Despite the effort of trade openness in the AMU, the economic growth, intra-trade and inter-trade are still lagging behind other developing countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. The objectives of this study are: 1) to examine the determinant of intra-regional trade in the AMU countries; 2) to examine the bilateral trade flows between AMU countries with selected European Union (EU) and Middle East (ME) countries; and 3) to investigate a long-run relationship between the trade and its determinants for a group of selected AMU, EU and ME countries. Using a data set of 1989-2009; the standard gravity model is used to measure the pattern and trend of bilateral trade. Overall, the results are consistent with those found in previous study where in all cases, parameters for the variables are found to be correctly signed and highly significant. A higher GDP increases trade while a longer distance inhibits trade. Larger population also results in higher trade. In terms of trade openness, the results show that the trade barriers are found to be positively and significantly correlated with openness. In short, the trade barriers are fairly effective for increasing trade. In analyzing the inter-trade of AMU with selected EU countries, namely Italy, Spain and France and selected ME, namely Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria, the results show that an increase in home GDP and partner’s countries GDP cause an increase in AMU’s trade. Population size, AMU’s real exchange rate, and trade openness are found to be positively related to trad

A simulation study of data discovery mechanism for scientific data grid environment

Research in the area of grid computing has given us various ideas and solutions to address the requirements in a modern scientific computing community that managed massive amounts of a very large data collections in a geographically distributed environment. Data Grids mostly deal with large computational problems and provide geographically distributed resources for large-scale data-intensive applications that generate large data sets. A number of research groups are working on the data distribution problems in Data Grids and they are investigating the data replication approaches on the data distribution. This leads to a new problem in discovery and access to data in Data Grid environment. To address this problem we have developed a model to study various discovery mechanisms and investigate these mechanisms for Dynamic Scientific Data Grid Environments using our Grid Simulator. In this paper, we illustrate our model and our Grid Simulator

Genetic variation among Northern and Southern Egyptian buffaloes using polymerase chain reaction-random amplified polymorphic DNA (PCR-RAPD)

The domestic water buffalo is a species of great economic potential, especially in developing countries like Egypt. Egyptian buffalo have been classified according to minor phenotypic differences and their geographical locations. Few studies have taken place to investigate the genetic variations in Egyptian buffalo using  microsatellites analysis. In the present study, 11 random primers were analyzed for the genetic diversity  determination between Northern and Southern Egyptian buffaloes using polymerase chain reaction-random  amplified polymorphic DNA (PCR-RAPD) analysis. 169 bands were amplified for the analyzed 11 random  primers, from which 160 bands (94.67%) for North populations and 168 bands for South population (99.41%).  Out of the 160 amplified bands in North populations, 152 bands were polymorphic with a percentage of 89.94% and only one specific band (0.59%). In South population, all 168 amplified bands were polymorphic, nine bands (5.33%) were specific for this population. The identity index and the genetic distance between North and South populations were measured. The results showed that the two tested populations have the same origin and  belong to one breed without significant genetic difference between their animals.Key words: Buffalo, genetic diversity, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)