Evaluation of Story Drift under Pushover Analysis in Reinforced Concrete Moment Frames

The accurate prediction of story drift and its distribution along the height of the structure is very critical for seismic performance evaluation since the non-structural damage is directly related to the story drift. Pushover analysis is an accepted method for seismic evaluation of existing structures as well as performance-based design of new structures. Regarding assumptions and limitations in pushover analysis, there is a need to estimate the error that would affect the accuracy of story drift. This paper investigates the validity of pushover analysis to predict story drift under different lateral load patterns. For this purpose, several reinforced concrete moment frames with different heights were analyzed using pushover and nonlinear time history analyses and obtained results were compared to evaluate the error level

Modeling of the toxicity of Eucalyptus globulus Labill essential oil against red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum Herbst

Although the application of synthetic chemicals is the main method in the management of insect pests, their overuse has led to public concerns about environmental pollution, threats to human health, and acute and chronic toxicity on non-target organisms. Plant essential oils have introduced as healthy, available, and effective alternatives to detrimental chemicals in recent years. Further, it is necessary to predict the exact amount of required pesticide to save costs and determine the optimal conditions for achievement to the best outcomes. Accordingly, the toxicity of Eucalyptus globulus Labill essential oil against the adults of a cosmopolitan pest Tribolium castaneum Herbst (red flour beetle) along with its modeling and optimization was assessed using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The coefficients of the essential oil concentration and time as independent variables are positive, showing their increase results in the augmentation of insect pest mortality. E. globulus essential oil showed prospective concentration-time dependent fumigant toxicity against T. castaneum. A quadratic polynomial equation was achieved for the toxicity of E. globulus essential oil using multiple regression analysis: 7.33413 + 0.20191A + 0.47313B + 4.64054E-003AB + 0.016349B2, in which A and B are the exposure time and essential oil concentration. The accuracy of the introduced model was approved through the analysis of variance. Results of the optimization indicated that 45.50 μl/l of essential oil and 72.00 h-exposure time would be adequate to achieve 92.45% mortality of T. castaneum. According to the results of current study, E. globulus essential oil has high potential in the management of T. castaneum and the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is a suitable method to the optimization and modelling of this bio-effect

Optimization of the antifungal activity of essential oil isolated from aerial parts of Thymus kotschyanus Boiss & Hohen (Lamiaceae)

Although utilization of synthetic chemicals is inevitable for management of economically detrimental agents, numerous side-effects such as environmental contaminations and effects of non-target organisms associated with them. Plant essential oils with low/without toxicity on mammals and as bio-degradable natural materials have been considered for different pests and fungi management in the recent years. In the present study, the essential oil of Thymus kotschyanus isolated by a Clevenger apparatus and its mycelial growth inhibition was measured against two phytopathogenic fungi Botrytis cinerea and Fusarium graminearum. The best models for predicting of antifungal effects were quadratic models. The essential oil showed a prospective mycelial growth inhibition against both phytopathogenic fungi. Optimization of the antifungal effects indicated that 206.207 ppm of the essential oil caused 50% mycelial growth inhibition of B. cinerea after 89.651 h. This value was 85.600 ppm for F. graminearum within 117.194 h. Results of the present study designated a great potential of T. kotschyanus essential oil for management of pathogenic fungi B. cinerea and F. graminearum.Keywords: Essential oil, mycelial growth inhibition, response surface, Thymus kotschyanu

Effect of Chitosan Coating on Some Quality Properties of Thomson Orange during Storage (A case study in Iran)

 Most of the world's consumers have used the natural coatings instead of chemical coatings. In this research, some quality properties of Thomson orange were evaluated using Chitosan edible coating (at concentrations of 0.5, 1 and 2%) and chemical coating of fungicide (Ortho Phenyl Phenol) as compared to uncoated samples during storage for three months. Fruit were maintained in cold storage at 6 °C temperature and 85-90% relative humidity, then pH, total soluble solid (TSS) of orange juice and percentage of fruit weight loss were measured during storage every month. The results showed that weight loss of fruit with 2% chitosan coating was lower than other treatments. Also this treatment had high resistance against fungal attacks due to high values of pH, so 2% chitosan coating can be able to protect the fruit quality during storage

Design a capacitive sensor for rapid monitoring of seed rate of sugarcane planter

A capacitive sensor method for measuring billet spacing uniformity with sugarcane (Saccharum officinarm L.) billet planter is investigated in this paper.  Therefore, an electronic device based on capacitive sensor was designed and developed to predict the planting spacing of sugarcane billets.  It consisted of four components: a rectangular parallel plate capacitor, electronic circuitry, microcontroller, and display unit.  Accordingly, a prototype of the precision metering device for sugarcane billets was developed.  After calibrating the monitoring system, the results were verified with calibrated curve by means of linear regression and paired T-test.  The performance of the device, including quality of feed index (QFI), multiple index and miss index was investigated under laboratory conditions using a capacitive sensor and a test stand with camera system.  The results revealed that the forward speed had a significant effect on these variables.  The coefficient of variation was less than 3%, which indicated that billet spacing calculated via capacitive sensing method has no significant difference with the computed billet spacing via image processing method.   Keywords: capacitive system, sugarcane, compare monitoring, performance indices, precision plantin

The Effect of Language Learning Experience on the Appropriate Use of Speech Act ‘Request’

Nowadays emphasizing linguistic competence is not a sufficient path to reach a target-like communicative competence. Pragmatic competence should be put emphasis on as well. The importance of learning speech acts which is one aspect in the pragmatics is clear to those who want to learn a second or foreign language. This study after investigating the interest of language learners in the acquisition of appropriate use of second language speech acts, traces the variation over time in the use of speech act of request in Iranian EFL University students and for further clarification a group of non-language University students. The results showed no effect of time on the appropriate use of speech act “request”

Models of mechanical cutting parameters in terms of moisture content and cross section area of sugarcane stalks

The objective of this study was to find optimizing moisture content and cutting area of sugarcane stalk cutting parameters using multiple regressions and to verify the optimum levels of the variables.  The effect of moisture content and cutting section area on mechanical cutting properties of sugarcane stalks was studied using a linear blade cutting and UTM (Universal Testing Machine) size reduction device.  Data obtained in the laboratory were divided into four different groups in order to determine the peak force, cutting energy, ultimate stress and specific energy.  Additional criterions were also proposed and used as an indicator of the cutting performance.  These were the marginal cutting parameter (MCP) and return to scale (RTS).  The data obtained in the laboratory were then used to develop functions in polynomial form that allowed the calculation of the optimum level of each independent variable considered in the study.  Moisture content had the highest effect on peak force, ultimate stress and specific energy with an impact of -15.936, -0.147 and -0.179, respectively.  Also cutting energy affected with cutting section area with a 36.06 coefficient.  The high moisture content level compared to low moisture content level produced a significant reduction in the peak force, ultimate stress and specific energy.  Cutting parameters were relatively insensitive to moisture content of sugarcane stalk more than cutting section area of that.   Keywords: mechanical cutting, moisture content, sugarcane stalk, cutting energy&nbsp

Modeling of the Toxicity of Eucalyptus globulus Labill Essential Oil against Red Flour Beetle, Tribolium castaneum Herbst

Although the application of synthetic chemicals is the main method in the management of insect pests, their overuse has led to public concerns about environmental pollution, threats to human health, and acute and chronic toxicity on non-target organisms. Plant essential oils have introduced as healthy, available, and effective alternatives to detrimental chemicals in recent years. Further, it is necessary to predict the exact amount of required pesticide to save costs and determine the optimal conditions for achievement to the best outcomes. Accordingly, the toxicity of Eucalyptus globulus Labill essential oil against the adults of a cosmopolitan pest Tribolium castaneum Herbst (red flour beetle) along with its modeling and optimization was assessed using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The coefficients of the essential oil concentration and time as independent variables are positive, showing their increase results in the augmentation of insect pest mortality. E. globulus essential oil showed prospective concentration-time dependent fumigant toxicity against T. castaneum. A quadratic polynomial equation was achieved for the toxicity of E. globulus essential oil using multiple regression analysis: 7.33413 + 0.20191A + 0.47313B + 4.64054E-003AB + 0.016349B2, in which A and B are the exposure time and essential oil concentration. The accuracy of the introduced model was approved through the analysis of variance. Results of the optimization indicated that 45.50 \u3bcl/l of essential oil and 72.00 h-exposure time would be adequate to achieve 92.45% mortality of T. castaneum. According to the results of current study, E. globulus essential oil has high potential in the management of T. castaneum and the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is a suitable method to the optimization and modelling of this bio-effect

‎Application of superhypergraphs-based domination number in real world

The concept of (quasi) superhypergraphs as a generalization of graphs makes a relation between some sets of elements in detail and in general (in the form of parts to parts, parts to whole, and whole to whole elements of sets) and is very useful in the real world. This paper considers the novel concept of (quasi) superhypergraphs and introduces the notation of dominating set and domination number of (quasi) superhypergraphs. Especially, we have analyzed the domination number of uniform (quasi) superhypergraphs and computed their domination number on different cases. The flows (from right to left, from left to right, and two-sided) as maps play a main role in (quasi) superhypergraphs and it is proved that domination numbers of (quasi) superhypergraphs are dependent on the flows. We define the valued-star (quasi) superhypergraphs for the design of hypernetworks and compute their domination numbers. We have shown that the domination numbers of valued-star (quasi) superhypergraphs are distinct in  different flow states. In final, we introduce some applications of dominating sets of (quasi) superhypergraphs in hypernetwork as computer networks and treatment networks with the optimal application