Evaluation of coliform bacteria and nematode eggs in Haraz River runoff

Haraz River is an important river in north of Iran. This river is one of the vital importances in Mazandaran province and cities of Amol, Babol, Fereidoon'kenar and Nour. This river is considered the largest and most beautiful tourist destinations of Mazandaran because it has the path and landscape of the mountainous and forest. This study was conducted for survey the coliforms and nematode eggs in runoff of Haraz River. Forty eight samples from four stations were taken during a year and samples examined for total coliform, fecal coliform and nematode eggs. The results showed that maximum and minimum of total coliforms in runoff was observed in Nourrod (3.1 ±1.95 CFU/100ml) and Shahrak Esar Amole (2.2 ± 1.77CFU/100ml) and also maximum and minimum of fecal coliforms was in Nourrod (1.6 ± 1.23 CFU/100ml) and Shahrak Esar Amole (1.2 ±.54 CFU/100ml) respectively. Also, the average annual number of nematode worm's eggs in the studied stations was varied between 30 in Nourrod to 124 ±41 in Shahrak Esar Amole.The results of this study showed that due to discharging of wastewater, sewage and runoff into the River result in decrease of water quality. Low quality of this river is caused distribution of microbial and parasites infections and is also contaminated of water used for agriculture, fish farms and horticulture

Quantitative evaluation and identification of fungi in Shahid Rajaeii Dam Lake, Mazandaran Province (Sari)

The present study is carried out to investigate the fungal species present in water of Shahid Rajaeii damlake in Sari, (Mazandaran province). Samples were taken from five stations including, Station 1: Input of Shirinrud river, station 2: Input of Sefidrud river, Station 3: The confluence of the two branches, Station 4: dam crest and stations 5: Output dam from June to February 2012. Every sample was diluted by sterile saline (10-1 and 10-2) and 0.5 mL from each dilution was cultured on SD and incubated at 27-30°C for 3-5 days. Finally, the number of colonies wasrecorded as (colony forming unit = CFU) per 100 mL. Identification of fungal agents were conducted by slide culture preparation and stained in lacto-phenol blue. The results showed that in August and February were significantly highest and lowest rates of fungal colonies were isolated from water in different stations respectively. Moreover, the number of fungal colonies in the crown and the output was significantly higher than other stations. The frequency of identified fungi were: Aspergillus species (31.4%), various types of yeast (mainly Candida) (24.2%), Penicillium sp. (19.3%), Cladosporium sp.(10.3%), Mucor sp. (5.4%), Fusarium sp. (2.9%), sterile hype (2.8%), Alternaria sp. (2.3%) and Paecilomyces sp. (1.4%)

Confidence in uncertainty: Error cost and commitment in early speech hypotheses

© 2018 Loth et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Interactions with artificial agents often lack immediacy because agents respond slower than their users expect. Automatic speech recognisers introduce this delay by analysing a user’s utterance only after it has been completed. Early, uncertain hypotheses of incremental speech recognisers can enable artificial agents to respond more timely. However, these hypotheses may change significantly with each update. Therefore, an already initiated action may turn into an error and invoke error cost. We investigated whether humans would use uncertain hypotheses for planning ahead and/or initiating their response. We designed a Ghost-in-the-Machine study in a bar scenario. A human participant controlled a bartending robot and perceived the scene only through its recognisers. The results showed that participants used uncertain hypotheses for selecting the best matching action. This is comparable to computing the utility of dialogue moves. Participants evaluated the available evidence and the error cost of their actions prior to initiating them. If the error cost was low, the participants initiated their response with only suggestive evidence. Otherwise, they waited for additional, more confident hypotheses if they still had time to do so. If there was time pressure but only little evidence, participants grounded their understanding with echo questions. These findings contribute to a psychologically plausible policy for human-robot interaction that enables artificial agents to respond more timely and socially appropriately under uncertainty

Catalytic biomass liquefaction. Quarterly report, January-March 1980

Progress during the quarter in the chemical characterization of the products of wood liquefaction is reported. The liquefaction of hydrolyzed slurries in a tubular reactor bomb system is described. The solvolytic depolymerization of wood is compared to the hydrolysis process. Results of a few illustrative runs are pesented. The characterization and flow properties of concentrated slurries are discussed. Progress on the construction of biomass continuous liquefaction unit is described