The Syntax of Copular Clauses in Arabic

Copular clauses in several languages have received much attention in recent years, however in Arabic they have been largely overlooked. In general, copular clauses have been classified into four types: the predicational clause, the specificational clause, the identificational clause, and the identity clause. This thesis aims to characterize and analyze the various copular clause types in Arabic, and goes further to discuss the taxonomic status of the copular clause with a postcopular definite description and the nature of the pronominal element (PE) in Arabic copular clauses. The thesis then explores the predicational clause type in more depth, focusing specifically on the copula KWN, the subject NP, and agreement and case in this type of copular clause. I provide an analysis of Arabic copular clauses that condenses the four types of copular clauses into just two types: the predicational clause and the identity clause, which differ in the small clause they contain. The specificational clause, the identificational clause, and the clause with a postcopular definite description can all be considered subtypes of the identity clause. I claim that the PE, which appears in all Arabic copular clauses except the predicational clause, is a realization of the F head in the structure of the identity clause, and cannot be used in a predicational clause due to the presence of predicative expressions in this type of clause. I also claim that Arabic has a single copula KWN, which originates in the vP, however in the structure of the Arabic verbless sentence this vP does not project. Next, I suggest that the definiteness constraint on the subject of Arabic predicational clauses follows from the referentiality and topicality requirements on the subject of a predicational clause. Finally, I provide an analysis for case and agreement in the predicational copular clause which suggests that the nominative case on subjects and their predicates in verbless sentences is obtained via Multiple Agree with T, whereas the accusative case on subjects and their predicates in clauses involving the copular verb results from Multiple Agree with v. However, the case on subjects may change in the course of a derivation by other mechanisms, such as presence of the complementizer ʔinna or by cyclic agreement

Atovaquone exerts its anticancer effect by inhibiting Na+/K+-ATPase ion transport in canine cancer cells

Background and Aim: New anticancer drugs are being developed to avoid the toxicity and chemoresistance of the currently available drugs. The Food and Drug Administration-approved anti-malarial drug atovaquone is known to act as a selective oxidative phosphorylation inhibitor in the mitochondria by competing with CO Q10 (mitochondrial complex II and III). This study aimed to investigate the effect of atovaquone by examining the Na+/K+-ATPase (NKA) activity in various canine cell lines. Materials and Methods: Canine cell lines were treated with various concentrations (2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 µM) of atovaquone for 24, 48, and 72 h. Human cell lines were used as a control to validate the canine cancer cell lines. The activities of the drugs against the cancer cell lines were measured using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl- 2H-tetrazolium bromideassay. The cell metabolic activity was determined by measuring the activities of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-dependent cellular oxidoreductase enzymes. The NKA activity was measured using the single-cell patch clamping assay. Results: Atovaquone-induced apoptosis by elevating the concentration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the tumor cells, leading to cell death. Treatment of canine cancer cells with N-acetylcysteine (ROS inhibitor) reduced the activity of the drug. Furthermore, atovaquone inhibited more than 45% of the NKA ion current. Conclusion: This study demonstrated effects of atovaquone against canine cancer cell lines. The data may prove beneficial in repurposing the drug as a new anticancer agent in canine clinical trials, which might aid in fighting human cancer

Investigation of the Effect of Edge-Oxidized Graphene Oxide (EOGO) on The Properties of Cement Composites

The use of edge-oxidized graphene oxide (EOGO), produced by a mechanochemical process that allow to deliver a product suitable for large-scale production at affordable cost, as an additive in cement composites was investigated. Comprehensive experimental tests were conducted to investigate the effect of EOGO on the properties of cement composites. The experimental tests were designed for three subtasks: (1) investigation of the performance of EOGO and its mixing method on the strength, pore structure and microstructure of EOGO-cement composites, (2) evaluation of the rheological and fluidity behavior of EOGO-cement paste and mortar, and (3) investigation of the mechanism of the enhanced workability of EOGO-concrete. EOGO content ranged from 0.01% to 1% and two mix design methods were employed for cement paste and mortar to explore an optimum and feasible mix design of EOGO. Compressive and flexural strength tests were conducted to investigate the mechanical performance of EOGO-cement composites. Total porosity and water sorptivity were performed to investigate the pore structure of EOGO-cement paste and mortar. Furthermore, petrographic analyses were conducted to characterize the microstructure of EOGO-cement composites. Imaged based-mini-slump and flow table tests were performed to measure the fluidity of EOGO-cement paste and mortar. The rheological properties of EOGO-cement paste were measured through viscometer test. The mechanism of the enhanced workability of EOGO-concrete was investigated by performing slump and water absorption of aggregate in cement paste tests. The key findings are (1) the addition of EOGO into cement composites improves the compressive and flexural strength, (2) 0.05% of EOGO is the optimum content to improve the strength and pore structure of EOGO-cement composites, (3) the addition of EOGO reduces the fluidity and increases the viscosity of EOGO-cement composites, (4) the addition of EOGO improves the workability of concrete, and (5) dry-mix design is feasible and more practical for large-scale production

Sampling Schemes For Estimating Software Reliability

Title from PDF of title page, viewed January 4, 2023Dissertation advisors: Kamel Rekab and Elizabeth StoddardVitaIncludes bibliographical references (pages 59-63)Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Department of Physics and Astronomy. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2022Any software system of non-trivial size cannot be easily and completely tested because the domain of all possible inputs is complex and very large. In this study, we use a technique called partition testing, in which we divide the input domain of all potential testing cases D into K ≥ 2 non-overlapping sub-domains. Each sub-domain can therefore be tested independently from the others. We employ two methods, a fully sequential method and two-stages method, that are based on a sample of the test cases to allocate the test cases among partitions and minimize the variance of estimated software reliability when usage probabilities are random. These methods allow us to take advantages from the previous testing as we test and, as a result, dynamically improve the distribution of test cases throughout the reliability testing process. By dynamically allocating test cases to partitions, these methods aim to minimize the variance of the reliability estimation. The variance incurred by fully sequential method and the variance incurred by two-stages method are compared with the variance incurred by the optimal and the variance incurred by the balanced sampling method. Using theoretical results and a Monte Carlo simulation, the fully sampling method and the two-stages method perform better than the balanced sampling method and are nearly optimal.Introduction -- Software reliability estimation for K partitions -- Software reliability estimation for two partitions -- Fully sequential estimation in software reliability -- Two-stage estimation in software reliability -- Monte Carlo simulations -- Summary and conclusio

Impact of plug in electric vehicle battery charging on a distribution system based on real-time digital simulator

This study investigates the impact of the electric vehicles (EVs’) battery charging on the distribution system in terms of maximum voltage deviation, voltage unbalance at various locations, transformers overloading, and introducing new peaks into the system. In this research, a 12.47 kV real distribution network has been modeled using real time digital simulator, using real data from a power distributor. The study presents four different scenarios of uncoordinated EVs integration for two different charging times (evening and night) and two different charging rates (level I and level II) at different penetration levels ranging from 10% to 100%. Voltage unbalance at different locations is determined and transformer overloading is analyzed. The influence of EVs charging on the daily load curve is shown. It is noted that actual system data of voltage and current at all intellirupters of the utility distribution system were close to the data of the simulated system

Stark contrast in prevalence and correlates of mental disorder in the Arabic and Indian populations.

The Indian and Saudi Arabian (a prototypical Arab nation) national mental health surveys were compared. In comparison to Saudi Arabia, India had a 2.5-fold lower lifetime prevalence of mental illnesses, a 3.8-fold lower current prevalence, and a 7-fold lower prevalence of serious mental disorders. All mental disorders, except drug use disorder, were less common in India. Being over 40 years old and having a better education level had a greater rate of mental illness in India; conversely, being a woman increases the risk of mental illness in Saudi Arabia, particularly anxiety and eating disorders. Besides substance abuse disorders, the treatment gap for mental illnesses is larger in Saudi Arabia. Overall, the comparison suggests a contrasting difference in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders, and their demographic correlation varies between the Indian and Saudi Arabian populations. There is a need to understand as to why such discrepancies exist

Cascaded Multi-Input Single-Output Boost Inverter for Mismatch Mitigation at PV Submodule Level

Mismatched power generation is a serious issue in PV systems, resulting from unequal power generation between PV components. Solutions have been proposed to reduce or eliminate the mismatch concern. One practical strategy is individually harvesting the maximum power from each PV component; the more distributed MPPT is applied to a finer level, the more power can be obtained. This study proposes three-input single-output boost converters that are employed to effectively increase PV power generation and significantly reduce mismatch issues between the PV submodule (PV SM). Each boost converter will be controlled to harvest the maximum power from a group of PV cells inside a single PV module. The outputs of the three boost converters are connected in series to provide higher output voltage for grid integration. The cascaded power converters are linked with a forwarding diode to provide a protection feature for the system and prevent the reverse current from harming the PV module. On the grid side, a single-phase Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) is used to convert the DC power from the PV module to sinusoidal AC power. The performance of the suggested inverter has been confirmed through experimental tests

A Comprehensive Review of Distributed MPPT for Grid-Tied PV Systems at the Sub-Module Level

Energy crises and the growth of the energy demand have increased the interest in utilizing unconventional power sources. Thus, renewable energy sources have become a topic of interest to mitigate rising energy concerns and cope with increased electricity demand. With remarkable merits including cleanness and abundance, photovoltaic (PV) solar energy systems are a key to solving these issues. The employed inverters should effectively utilize the maximum available power from the PV solar system and transfer this power to the utility grid without posing any further limitations. However, the unequal power generation of different PV systems caused by partial shading (PS) and other PV panel degradation factors leads to a reduction in generation capacity. One of the relatively new solutions to mitigate the mismatch concerns between the PV modules and sub-modules is to extract the maximum power of each sub-module individually. The main objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of such PV grid-connected inverters topologies associated with sub-module connection and control. It will classify the PV grid-tied inverters in accordance with the level where the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) system is implemented. A special focus has been placed on sub-module microinverters (MI) in terms of circuit topologies, conversion efficiency, and controller design. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of employing the distributed MPPT (DMPPT) approach to maximize the power generation of PV systems by mitigating the mismatch issues inside the PV module. The circuit topology, PV system configuration, and MPPT algorithms used for applying DMPPT solutions in PV SMs are discussed in detail in this study

De-aluminated metakaolin-cement composite modified with commercial titania as a new green building material for gamma-ray shielding applications

Sustainable disposal of dealuminated metakaolin (DAK) is a crucial environmental issue for the alum production industry. In previous studies, DAK was utilized as eco-friendly cementitious materials, but only 10 wt% was used instead of cement as DAK's high percentage has a detri-mental effect on the mechanical properties, so the environmental problem of DAK has not yet been solved. In this study, commercial titanium oxide (TiO2) was incorporated in a cement matrix containing DAK that reached 50 wt% to benefit from TiO2's properties in enhancing the me-chanical performance of binding materials and producing cementitious blends used as blocking materials against harmful gamma radiation. Five pastes were prepared to reach the main target; ordinary Portland cement (OPC), OPC-10%DAK (D10), OPC-30%DAK (D30), OPC-50%DAK (D50) and OPC-45%DAK-5%TiO2 (D45-T5). By means of a mini-slump test, all fresh blends have very close flowability using the appreciated additions of polycarboxylate superplasticizer. The hardened composites were cured in tap water for up to 28-days. Compressive strength results at 28 days for OPC, D10, D30 and D50 were 80, 94.6, 60.8 and 57.6 MPa, respectively. An obvious turning point in strength value from 57.6 to 88 MPa after replacement of DAK by 5 wt% TiO2 (D45-T5). A gamma-ray shielding test was performed using two radioactive isotopes (Co-60 and Cs-137). The inclusion of 5% TiO2 has a great impact on the development of shielding power of D45-T5 compared with OPC; the linear attenuation coefficient (mu) values were enhanced from 0.127 +/- 0.003 cm(-1) to 0.199 +/- 0.007 cm(-1) at 661.6 Kev and from 0.118 +/- 0.003 cm(-1) to 0.144 +/- 0.005 cm(-1) at 1332.5 Kev. The unique properties of specimens containing the anatase phase may be attributed to the fact that the TiO2 may act as a nano-filler and active seeds for the formation of further hydration products such as CSHs, CAHs and CASHs as detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal analyses techniques (TGA/DSC) and scanning electron microscope (SEM/EDX). TiO2 caused rearrangement of the textural structure of D45-T5 composite to meso pores, as proved by N-2-adsorption/desorption technique. Moreover, the TiO2's tetragonal struc-ture makes it has dosimetric characteristics of high adsorbent for gamma rays

New and effective solitary applications in Schrödinger equation via Brownian motion process with physical coefficients of fiber optics

Using the unified solver technique, the rigorous and effective new novel optical progressive and stationary structures are established in the aspects of hyperbolic, trigonometric, rational, periodical and explosive types. These types are concrete in the stochastic nonlinear Schrödinger equations (NLSEs) with operative physical parameters. The obtained stochastic solutions with random parameters that are founded in the form of rational, dissipative, explosive, envelope, periodic, and localized soliton can be utilized in fiber applications. The stochastic modulations of structures' amplitude and frequency caused by dramatic instantaneous influences of both fibers nonlinear, dispersive, losing and noise term effects maybe very important in new fiber communications